Irish Bars and Wanderwegs

Irish Bars

Let's face it every town in the world has at least one. You could be stuck out in the middle of nowehre in a town with two chickens and a dog and one of the two shacks will have a Guiness sign outside it! And that's not a bad thing!
I had a job to do on Friday: suss out where to watch Saturday's game. Now, as you know, I'd already checked out Mr Pickwick's on previous occassions, so that was always an option but I'd had two other suggestions - McGuinesses and Paddy Reillys. Hence the subtitle.


I tried McGuiness's on Elisabethenstrasse first and I must say it looked pretty good - nice size, big sign outside saying "showing all world cup games" and "open from 12:30" and "smart dress only - no baseball hats". The problem was, it was half past three, a half-hour before kick-off of the opening game, and the place was locked up and in darkness!


So off to Paddy Reillys on Steinentorstrasse I went, where a sizeable community of South African fans was gathering outside, spreading across the grass and peering at a 32" flatscreen outside. Me, I went inside, sat at the almost entirely empty bar about 6 feet from a nice 42 incher. Almost next to me at the bar was a very nice American chap with whom I spent most of the match talking about soccerball. It was good, and will be visited again, but not on Saturday as a decision was taken to go somewhere else entirely.

Wanderwegs!

We jumped on a tram at Zoo. [bet you can't guess what attraction that stop is near, can you?] We headed out to Oberwil, which isn't too far out of Basel, with some sandwiches, water, and a free map my wife had got of the front of a free newspaper (or something). I wasn't too confident about the quality of this map, but I was assured that we wouldn't need it as the Swiss wanderwegs are very well signposted. As you can see. As soon as we stepped off the tram, we saw the sign for the various walks we could take. We'd decided to go into Basel St Margarethen, a short stroll of an hour and a half, so off we went.
Every junction, if you're not sure which way to go, check the lampposts / trees / fenceposts for a yellow diamond saying "wanderweg", and you're sorted! A perfect system until, just like back home, someone forgets to put a yellow arrow [or diamond] on a stump / post. At which point you're buggered.
Despite all this, it was my first little stroll through the hills of Basel and a not unpleasant one. We saw a fantastic "pick your own" berry place, called "Beeriland", and I really wanted to go off towards the "batterie", which I assume is the old defensive battery for Basel [equals excellent views!] and will report on at some future point probably. There was also a garden centre, and a wildlife reserve with, honestly, a frog-crossing! Look!

Pickwick burgers

I should also mention that we ended up in Mr Pickwicks for the England game and had burgers for sustenance. I had a "Mr Pickwick Giant Burger (the biggest burger in Basel)" [™ probably] and IT WAS GREAT and big and good. Not much bigger than Claire's Spicey Burger, but big and tasty nevertheless.

Housewarming BBQs

Lastly, but not leastly, Sunday was spent at a very-nice-colleague-of-my-wife's house who had just moved in. I met lots of very nice people, drank lots of beer and Pimms and ... something else ... and it was very nice. Thank you Lisa.

Hopefully, if the weather is nice, we'll be off to the Jungfrau this weekend and if so there will be pictures.

[...STOP PRESS...] Hopp Schwiss!